QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Alice's Scrapbag: Grandpa's Banyan


Full Circle 78" x 78"

"Full Circle" is the official Moda kit for my latest Civil War era reproduction fabric Alice's Scrapbag.
Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilts designed it. You can buy Full Circle as a pattern or a complete kit.

Carrie combined a few simple blocks that work well side-by-side.
She used every print in the repro collection.

I think I see some of "Grandpa's Banyan" in there.
It's a paisley in a grid set.

On the left above: The document print from Alice's original four- patch quilt that inspired the Moda collection.
On the right: A piece of the reproduction Grandpa's Banyan, plus a photo of a man dressed in his banyan or dressing gown.


Why did I name the paisley Grandpa's Banyan?

Amos Lawrence in a banyan, painting by Chester Harding,
Mid-1840s.
Collection: National Gallery of Art

Alice's Grandpa wasn't as rich as Amos Lawrence, nor did he own a fabric mill but the Pennsylvania farmer might have had a similar dressing gown or banyan.

Banyan made of wool woven in the style of Cashmere shawls

Banyan is an old-fashioned word for another old-fashioned word---
a dressing gown, our bathrobe.
But banyans were a little more formal
than a bathrobe. You received friends wearing
your banyan.

Or had your photo taken in one.
(How au courant is that hair????)

Here's a man's dressing gown in a cotton paisley print.
Paisley-style banyans were part of a mid-19th-century fashion for orientalism in the boudoir. Victorians loved the idea of eastern design from India, China and Japan in their private rooms.

A later, shorter variation was called a
smoking jacket.

Alice's original four-patch

Thus....
"Grandpa's Banyan"


The reproduction print comes in three period colorways.

Read more about a particular banyan here
https://aeveryday.omeka.net/exhibits/show/banyan/object

Ask your shop if they have any "Full Circle" kits or patterns in stock. Or do a web search for the four words
 Full Circle Alice's Scrapbag
to find a shop carrying the kit and pattern.

3 comments:

  1. Love the line! Picked up mine at Cyndi's (Busy Thimble) last week. Thanks!

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  2. Interesting info. and paisley designs. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Wow, thanks for sharing,there are fantastic projects!

    ReplyDelete